Charcoal is popular cooking fuel used throughout the world. Charcoal is used as a fuel to cook food using fire. Charcoal has an advantage over fire burning wood since it does not generate as much soot and it provides the chef greater heat control. Although charcoal is an archaic cooking fuel, charcoal imparts a pleasant atmosphere for any gathering. The odor reminds people of good food and fellowship with friends and family.
The ease and convenience of grills using propane, natural gas and electricity has caused people to choose alternatives to using charcoal for grilling their food. Having the ability to light charcoal quickly and cleanly will make the use of charcoal more convenient. If charcoal can be ignited quickly, cleanly and safely, more people will enjoy it's pleasing cooking qualities.
People light charcoal on fire using various methods including chemical accelerants such as charcoal lighting fluid; physical heating methods such as hot ceramic heaters; concentrated heat, for example lighting a small fire under a venter tube containing the charcoal (i.e. chimney starter); and a hybrid type, for example, by using a physical heating method along with concentrated heat.
Since smell and taste are closely linked, it is important to prepare charcoal in ways that will not impart offending or poisonous odor into the food that is being cooked. Charcoal lighting fluid is a petroleum based liquid that smells bad and is often not quickly burned up once the charcoal is ready for cooking. The person preparing the grill generally places the charcoal to be lit inside the grill that they will be cooking the food. The lighter fluid is sprayed on the charcoal. When the user sprays the charcoal lighter fluid onto the charcoal however, charcoal lighter fluid also penetrates the charcoal ash that is setting in the bottom of the grilling vessel. The charcoal lighting fluid can also permeate the grill walls if the grill is made of ceramic, file tile or brick.
Some devices have aspects that utilize fuel as an accelerant to ignite the charcoal. As a result of the use of the fuel, there is a strong likelihood that the smell of the fuel may linger after ignition of the charcoal.
In order to combat the deleterious effects of charcoal fluid, charcoal starters that employed the use of electric heating elements have been used to ignite charcoal. However, these lighters have slow ignition speeds since there is no forced air helping to speed ignition. Because the heat from the electric heating element immediately touching a piece of charcoal provides the source of ignition, the remaining charcoal is only later ignited by the charcoal that was ignited by the electric heating element.
Other solutions for igniting charcoal without the use of charcoal lighter fluid use hot air from a small fire lit under the charcoal igniter. These types of solutions are commonly referred to as ‘chimney starters’. These solutions require the user to crumple up newspaper or other easily ignitable material and place this material under the unit, light the newspaper on fire with a lighter or match, and wait for the hot air and gases from the fire produced by the burning newspaper to ignite the charcoal. When the charcoal is fully ignited, the charcoal is dumped into the cooking vessel. However, these charcoal starters have numerous disadvantages. For, example, these starters produce a larger mess from the ash resulting from igniting the newspaper or other material that is placed under the unit to start the ignition. These igniters also depend on airflow from the charcoal that is near the bottom of the igniter. In order to provide the airflow, air holes are provided on the bottom and sides of these starters. Charcoal ash or small ignited charcoal can fall out of the starter during the ignition phase. To prevent this problem, the user will use this igniter inside the grilling vessel but if the user wishes to ignite more charcoal to be added later on in the cooking cycle, they will have to use these igniters inside another separate grilling vessel or another heat resistant container.
Furthermore, these charcoal lighters may produce excessive heat. Due to the heat generated from the ignition of the charcoal, these charcoal starters must be placed inside the grilling vessel or on a surface that is not damaged from heat and fire. If the user has a patio or deck made of wood or a plastic material, these charcoal starters can cause significant damage to the patio or deck material. Even if the patio or deck material is made from stone, concrete or tile, fire and heat can still damage the surface by leaving marks or causing cracking from the heat.
In order to improve the speed of ignition, other solutions attempted to combine forced air along with an ignition mechanism. However, these devices often do not allow the user to heat charcoal outside of the cooking vessel or grill so the user would not be able to light new charcoal outside of the cooking session without disturbing the existing cooking session or using a separate grilling vessel.
Other disadvantages of these devices are that the heating mechanism and blower are integrated with the unit. Forced air heating apparatus such as heat guns tend to wear out quickly due to the extreme temperature variances that it undergoes with normal use. If the forced air heating apparatus were to wear out, the entire unit must be discarded.
Another problem that many chimney style heat chamber designs have is that the handles will become too hot to touch as the charcoal catches fire. This problem can only be addressed by making a heat insulated handle that is manufactured from heat resistant material such as wood, spiraled metal or plastic. Regardless of how heat resistant these materials are however, they will still heat up over time while being exposed to heat. The best way to prevent the handle from heating up is to keep it from touching other metal that is hot.
Therefore, a charcoal lighter that is fast, reliable and efficient that overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks of other lighters is desirable.